Another blast shook the iron bars of the woman's cell. This time she glanced up, eyes bright green in the lantern's pale blue glow. Her eyes slid shut again, and she lowered her head, long, raven hair falling around her kneeling form like a silken cloak. She could feel the world's agonies, the wails and shrieks of her people crashing against stone in a ceaseless tide. Orange light flamed through the tiny window in the grey wall, but she did not rise to look. She had no need to. Before her was laid the fabric of time, each thread and the pattern formed by their weaving visible to her piercing eye.
She could see the city, Mintarka, pale and proud in a pale sea, crouching like a great spider over the shimmering depths, each leg stretching, each claw grasping. The golden roofs gleamed dully in the light of a cold, distant sun. The streets were flooded with people and the gutters overflowed with their blood. Swords gleamed and guns spewed fire like infernal dragons.
All paths led to death. There was no way out.
I warned you, the woman whispered, her crimson lips still. You would not heed my words.
She had seen all of this in her mind months before. She had stood before Mintarka's elders and told them of a new reality that was about to be revealed, and the price of its rejection. Valkor, the chief elder, scoffed at her. She was mad, he said. The others nodded in mindless consent.
Like a child gazing into a pool, they saw only their own reflection, and not the black thunderclouds overhead waiting to strike.
Then the outsiders had come, with their black hair and strange, pale eyes. In a wave of glittering fire they appeared at the edge of Mintarka. D'ni, they called themselves. They had described Mintarka in a book and come to visit. They wanted only to teach, only to learn . . .
She had stood before the elders as Ri'Naris, the D'ni's leader, spoke of his people and their hopes for Mintarka. She was the first person Ri'Naris had met, and he recognized her wisdom. I need you to stand with us, Elenvar, he had told her. Your people's eyes are closed. They need to understand what is happening . . .
She shivered, a cold ray of pain stabbing through her. In her mind the images flashed with fierce intensity—Ri'Naris hanging from the gallows like a dark pendulum, his pale eyes empty; Valkor laughing at his death; the doors of her cell slamming shut; Ri'Naris' D'ni kin in their homeworld, watching with solemnity a burning Book.
The outsiders had been defeated easily, the elders sneered. What a mighty civilization, this D'ni! Full of charlatans and weaklings. With little trouble they had been sent back to where they came from.
But it was not over. The people had seen more plainly than ever the elders' cruelty, glimpsed a world freer and stronger than their own. They wanted change. The elders would not give it to them, so they decided to take it.
A phantom of a laugh escaped her lips. Fools. Valkor and his elders had laid their own doom. You will perish like ashes in the wind, she had warned. Their ears were deaf. Now the people had risen up, some fighting for the elders and some against them. Brothers met death at each other's hand. This would be the end, she knew. One thing only awaited.
The false guardian lifts his hand. The cloud falls. Silence alone the pale shadow leaves.
At that moment, she could see Valkor standing in the elders' hall, his hand on the controls of the one thing Mintarka had built, the one thing the D'ni did not have . . .
A weapon of blind death.
It had been created for use on invaders from beyond the pale sea, but it did not discriminate between friend and foe. It devoured everything.
You will destroy everyone, allies and rebels alike, she called to Valkor with her mind. Yet you can still turn back.
Valkor grew very pale. Her image hung before him like a dim star, her grey robes flowing in an unseen wind. "Yes," he replied, knuckles white on the controls. "I will kill my own people. You also will fall."
No, she smiled slightly, green eyes blazing. I am a seer, Valkor. I was not born to die.
Then she withdrew her mind from his and rose to her feet. Suddenly a massive blast shook the city. The buildings convulsed; she did not move. She saw as the pale orange cloud burst forth from the elders' hall and stretched like a creeping mist over Mintarka. Screams fell silent as the screamers were vaporized in the pale fog. Swiftly it drew nearer to her cell.
Just as it was climbing the wall, she withdrew a small green book from the folds of her cloak.
Ri'Naris' Linking Book.
She opened the Book and laid her hand on the glowing panel. Her body melted into the air as the cloud swept over, plunging Mintarka forever into darkness.